Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-01-06
ABOUT UMBRELLAS.
OBSERVATIONS DURING AYISITTO i BROOK,
LlN FACTORY
Points About the Trade Materials USei-H0w they
Are Put Together Natural Sticks
A Good Fifteen MN
ues Work.

Philadelphia seems to be the chief seat
of the umbrella industry in this country,
and a gentleman connected with Il large
umbrella factory in that city gave the wri-
ter rs his estimate of the number turned
out yearly throughout the country, eight
million. This would allow IN umbrella to
about one person in six, according to the
last census computation Of the population,
and one umbrella for every siN persons is
certainly not a very generous distribution.
added to the number made in this coun-
try, are about one-half million which are
imported chiefly from France and Eng
land.
10 was not until the year l5OO that Amer
leans began to make their own umbrellas.
The word comes from the latin umbra,
which means a shade, but the name, most
probably, WAS introduced into the English
language from the Italian word umbrella.
Par:lsol means Ito ward off the sun, and
another pretty name, not much used by
Americans for a small parasol, is ''parasO-
lette." The umbrella, in oriental cOun-
tries, il a very ancient and primitive SYM
Dol of royal authority. The Grown
is but the fur cap of
Northern races adorned with gold
scent to the primeval ancestry OF the trop-
zeal forest; the gigantic leaves of the palm
are it's prototype But it is only in very
recent times that the umbrella has been
converted into the parapluie. Those ut
our readers who have read Robinson
CruSoe, " remember how he made his UNI
brella and covered it With skins. Then
there have been umbrellas covered with
large feathers that would shed rain like Il
ducks back" and umbrellas with Gov
eringS of oil cloth. of straw, of paper, Of
wooden stulS, until now nearly all UNI
hrellas are COVERED with silk, alpaca or
bingham.
There are several umbrella factories in
BROOKLYN. | was taken over one of these
factories the other day, and WAS soon made
to see that there are many more different
things used in making umbrellas than
had at first supposed. There are, first, the
springs of steel, the runner, runner notch,
lrrrule, cap, bands and tips of brass Or
nickel: then there are the covering, the
runner guard, which is of silk OF leather,
the inside cap, and Oltentimes fancy han
die, which may be OF ivory, bone, horn,
walruS tusk, or even mother Of pearl or
some kind of metal and if you look sharp
~ you will find riyet put in deity here
and there.
For the sticks great variety of wood is
used, although all the wood must be hard,
firm, tough, and capable of receiving both
polish and staining The cheaper sticks
are sawed ont of plank, chiefly of maple
and iron wood. They are then turned
that is made round), polished and
stained.
The natural sticks, not very long ago,
were all imported from England, hut that
has been changed, and We now send Eng
Ian part of our own supply, which con-
SiStS principally of hawthorn and buckle
berry. from New York and New Jersey,
and of oak, ash, hickory and wild cherry.
To look at these sticks, often crooked and
gnarled, with q piece Of the root left
ON, one would think they would make,
very shabby sticks Sor umbrellas, but
they are sent TO factory, where they are
steamed and Strengthened, and then To a
carver, who cuts the knaTled root end into
the image Of a dog or horses head, or any
of the thousand and one designs which
may be seen, many of which are exceed
ingly ugly. OF the imported natural
sticks, the principal are olive, ebony, furze,
snakewoOd, pimento, cinnamon, partridge
and bamboo. Perhaps it is as well here TO
explain that natural stick is one that
has been Young tree, having grown to be
lust large enough for IN umbrella stick,
when it is pulled up, root ana al, oEat
least a part of the root. When you buy
an umbrella that has the stick bent into a
deep curve at the bottom for the handle,
YOU may feel quite sure that Is CT partridge
wood, which does not grow large enough
to furnish knob for handle, but when
steamed admits of being bent.
The runner, ferrule cap, band, etc,
form what is called umbrella furniture,
and for these articles there is q special
mandatory, Another factory still cuts
and grooves wire of steel into the ribs and
stTetCbers. Formerly ribs were made out
of cane OF Rbalebone, but these materials
are now seldom used. When the steel Is
grOOged il is called paragon Frame, which
is the lightest and best made. it was IN
vented By an Englishman named Fox
about twenty years ago. The latest inn
pr0vement in the manufacture Of ribs is to
give them an inward curve at the bottom
SO that they viii fit snugly around the
stick, and which dispenses with the tin
cup-a cup-shaped piece of metal that
1loSes oyer the tips. N
MOst Of tbe silk used for umbrella COW